The present invention is related to a circuit breaker panel and more particularly to a circuit breaker panel for an aircraft or other environment where volume, weight, and wiring complexity are considerations, and where fault indications, redundancy, continuous monitoring of the lamp filaments and current limiting are desired.
Circuit breaker panels such as those found, for example, in the flight station of a modern aircraft, have generally included an array of rather large and heavy circuit breakers of the electromechanical or magnetic type. Because of the circuits controlled by these circuit breakers, each circuit breaker is generally individually wired by hand and presenting a virtual rats' nest of wiring. In addition to the physical space required for the circuit breakers themselves and the space needed to implement the wiring connections, conventional circuit breaker panels carry the indicia associated with each switch in immediate proximity thereto.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to reduce many of the space requirements of the prior art circuit breaker panels and to provide a panel of considerably reduced size and wieght.
Identification of the circuits associated with each of the circuit breakers in the prior art panels is generally accomplished by etching of the surface of the panel in proximity to each of the circuit breakers. This permits the use of the technique of edge lighting to provide the necessary illumination of the identifying indicia when there is little or no ambient light such as the cockpit of an aircraft when dark adapted. This technique has the disadvantage of necessitating replacement of the entire etched panel in the event of a single circuit change.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to obviate the identifying problems of many prior art circuit breaker panels and to provide a novel panel in which the identifying indidial is visible in daylight, illuminated from the rear sufficiently for visibility in the absence of ambient light, and individually associated with each circuit breaker for ease of replacement as well as to provide the control/reset functions of a conventional circuit breaker panel.
A further problem in prior art circuit breaker panels has been one of indicating the status of the circuit. Where lamps have been provided for this purpose, additional space is required on the panel. In addition, the testing of the lamps for failure becomes a problem generally resolved only by the push-to-test method. This method, of course, provides an indication of lamp status only at the time of the test and provides no redundancy in the event of the failure of the lamp filament.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to obviate many of the deficiencies of the prior art circuit breaker panels and to provide a novel panel which features redundancy in circuit status indication, continuous testing of the indicator lamps, and association of the identifying indicia directly on the circuit breaker.
An additional problem in prior art circuit breaker panels has been the handling of excessive fault current. Reactances have been used for a.c. applications but are not adaptive for d.c. circuits. Solid state devices of the semi-conductor type are, on the other hand, suitable only for d.c. circuits unless connected in a back-to-back mode and are often highly responsive to temperature and voltage transient.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a novel and inexpensive circuit breaker panel having a current limiting capability for a.c. or d.c. power circuits as well as status indicating, trip, and reset means.
These and many other objects and advantages of the present invention could be apparent from the claims and from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the appended drawings.